# Commercial well permits in Colorado — 22,356

> 22,356 Colorado wells are permitted for commercial. What that allows, where they are, and how deep they go.

## Commercial

**22,356** of Colorado’s 600,017 well permits are decreed for this — 3.7%.

### What this use allows

Commercial means water for a business.

*Medians, on the permits where the Division was told — never a mean, which a few industrial wells would carry away*

| Measurement | Median | 90th percentile | Colorado median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depth | **174 ft** | 900 ft | 148 ft — deeper here (10,274 permits, 46 %) |
| Yield | **15 gpm** | 110 gpm | 10 gpm — higher here (5,111 permits, 23 %) |
| Static water level | **50 ft** | 308 ft | 58 ft — lower here (8,212 permits, 37 %) |

### Where they are

| County | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Elbert](/county/elbert/commercial.md) | 2,769 | 12.4% |
| [El Paso](/county/el-paso/commercial.md) | 2,402 | 10.7% |
| [Weld](/county/weld/commercial.md) | 1,414 | 6.3% |
| [La Plata](/county/la-plata/commercial.md) | 1,103 | 4.9% |
| [Adams](/county/adams/commercial.md) | 1,007 | 4.5% |
| [Jefferson](/county/jefferson.md) | 891 | 4.0% |
| [Garfield](/county/garfield.md) | 872 | 3.9% |
| [Douglas](/county/douglas.md) | 822 | 3.7% |
| [Arapahoe](/county/arapahoe.md) | 708 | 3.2% |
| [Rio Blanco](/county/rio-blanco.md) | 659 | 2.9% |
| [Chaffee](/county/chaffee.md) | 533 | 2.4% |
| [Rio Grande](/county/rio-grande.md) | 492 | 2.2% |
| [Larimer](/county/larimer.md) | 452 | 2.0% |
| [Grand](/county/grand.md) | 448 | 2.0% |
| [Park](/county/park.md) | 429 | 1.9% |
| [Yuma](/county/yuma.md) | 400 | 1.8% |
| [Kit Carson](/county/kit-carson.md) | 380 | 1.7% |
| [Boulder](/county/boulder.md) | 361 | 1.6% |
| [Gunnison](/county/gunnison.md) | 356 | 1.6% |
| [Archuleta](/county/archuleta.md) | 323 | 1.4% |
| [Alamosa](/county/alamosa.md) | 298 | 1.3% |
| [Logan](/county/logan.md) | 282 | 1.3% |
| [Teller](/county/teller.md) | 270 | 1.2% |
| [Saguache](/county/saguache.md) | 268 | 1.2% |
| [Pueblo](/county/pueblo.md) | 258 | 1.2% |
| [Morgan](/county/morgan.md) | 245 | 1.1% |
| [Routt](/county/routt.md) | 224 | 1.0% |
| [Fremont](/county/fremont.md) | 223 | 1.0% |
| [Summit](/county/summit.md) | 222 | 1.0% |
| [Eagle](/county/eagle.md) | 218 | 1.0% |

### What happened to these permits

**9,112** of the 22,356 permits decreed for commercial ended with a
well the Division was told about — 40.8%. And
**2,629** expired without one: 11.8%.

An expired permit is the trap in a rural sale. A seller can
produce a permit that lapsed years ago, and a permit is not a water right
— the two are separate, and a purchase turns on both.
[What an expired permit does and does not mean](/expired.md).

| Status | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Well Constructed | 9,112 | 40.8% |
| NA | 3,982 | 17.8% |
| Permit Expired | 2,629 | 11.8% |
| Permit Canceled | 1,288 | 5.8% |
| Application Information Requested | 1,202 | 5.4% |
| Application Denied | 1,080 | 4.8% |
| Permit Issued | 958 | 4.3% |
| Well Abandoned | 698 | 3.1% |
| Application Withdrawn | 438 | 2.0% |
| Well Replaced - Abandonment Required | 438 | 2.0% |

### Buying land in Colorado, or need a well drilled?

22,356 well permits are on the Division’s register in Colorado, 2,629 of them expired. This site tells you what a permit says; it does not drill, and it is not advice on a water right. Tell us where and we pass the request to drillers and water-rights advisers working in Colorado.

We take no commission and we recommend no driller. We have no arrangement with any firm today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. [What we do with this](/privacy.md).

### The other decreed uses

- [Domestic](/use/domestic.md) 243,096
- [Household Use Only](/use/household-use-only.md) 105,372
- [Monitoring/sampling](/use/monitoring-sampling.md) 91,022
- [Irrigation](/use/irrigation.md) 47,689
- [Stock](/use/stock.md) 31,328
- [Other](/use/other.md) 18,823
- [Not stated](/use/not-stated.md) 15,448
- [Municipal](/use/municipal.md) 9,424
- [Industrial](/use/industrial.md) 8,665
- [Geothermal](/use/geothermal.md) 3,815

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Página: https://wells-co.pages.dev/use/commercial/
Fonte: Well Application Permit — Colorado Division of Water Resources
Recolha: 2026-08-21